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Podcasts have the ability to captivate the attention of millions of listeners, fast becoming modern-day radio. But why have podcasts grown so popular?
One of the primary reasons is a mix of creators who appreciate having their voices heard and listeners who want to be inspired by fresh ideas and solutions to their issues.
To bring these two sides of the coin together, the content must be available on a podcast hosting service. This, together with a good free website, is all you need to ensure that the rest of the world hears what you have to say.
One of the few podcast creation tools available today, Anchor is designed to be a one-stop shop for podcasting. Using the free phone app or online at Anchor.fm, you can perform all of your recording, editing, and hosting tasks with Anchor.
You can host and modify your podcasts online. The internet is many sites to store and broadcast your work; it’s crucial to know what you can anticipate from the podcast hosting site you pick from the start.
With this in mind, we’ve compiled a list of the 15 top podcast hosts on the market and examined each platform’s unique characteristics so you can choose a host that genuinely showcases your storytelling abilities.
In this piece, we will look at some of the best alternatives to Anchor.fm that you can use right away.
1. Podbean
You can upload, publish, manage, and market your podcasts using PodBean’s user-friendly interface with only a few mouse clicks.
But it’s its crowdfunding opportunities for more serious producers hoping to generate money from dedicated listeners that truly set them apart from the crowd.
In terms of functionality, the platform is straightforward and user-friendly. One significant benefit of partnering with PodBean is that your podcast will be featured in their network, creating another layer of discoverability for you.
Increase your audience by increasing awareness on connected social networks, and easily publish your podcast to the most popular listening applications like Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
Pricing
You can start using it for free and premium pricing starts from $9/month.
2. Fusebox
Fusebox is the brilliant brainchild of one of the podcasters, Pat Flynn, who hosts the popular Smart Passive Income podcast.
He is a top affiliate marketer, so he understands what he’s doing. Fusebox includes a lot of cool features, including an email capture option that most podcast players don’t have.
It has a transcript plugin that creates transcripts for your podcast automatically. It includes a plethora of third-party connectors to assist you in expanding your reach.
It is simple to utilize this podcast player; simply install the Fusebox plugin on your WordPress website and then add your RSS feed to it. In Fusebox, enter the subscription URLs to publish your podcasts to all of the main directories.
Pricing
You can try it for free and premium pricing starts from $9/month.
3. Firstory
Firstory is an easy-to-use podcast hosting service that is suitable for both novice and experienced podcasters.
To begin, it interacts with all major media streaming applications, and you can broadcast your podcast episodes to all apps with one-click automation.
The list will be automatically updated when new podcasts are added. With Firstory’s cross-platform comment area, you can easily gather input from your audience across all applications and enhance your engagement rate.
You can import previous episodes to keep track of your milestones and progress. It provides a free plan with all of the features and tools you’ll need to get started as a podcaster.
Pricing
You can start using it for free and premium pricing starts from $19/month.
4. Buzzsprout
Buzzsprout is a podcasting platform that offers podcast hosting, promotion, and analytics. Through Buzzsprout, you can immediately distribute your podcast to platforms like Google, Apple, Spotify, Stitcher, iHeartRadio, Alexa, Overcast, and more.
You can get started with the simple and cost-free learning resources offered by Buzzsprout, including the community, industry podcasts, video lessons, podcasting tips, and courses.
The nicest feature is that you can choose whether audio should appear at the start or finish of an episode thanks to its dynamic content flexibility.
It takes all the necessary steps to optimize your podcast for search engines, including transcribing each episode for listeners with hearing impairments.
Pricing
You can start using it for free and premium pricing starts from $12/month for 3 hours each month.
5. Blubrry
Blubrry takes pleasure in making it exceedingly simple to create your own podcast. Aside from hosting and plugin capabilities, the platform provides a range of detailed data that consumers like.
Their statistics make it simple to stay on top of your data and obtain insights into things other than the number of listeners. You’ll be able to see, for example, where your listeners are located and what platforms they’re using to access your podcast.
This podcast hosting facility is utilized for more than just the standard B2C (business-to-consumer) experience.
Blubrry also provides private podcasting, which lets you utilize their secure audio and video for business communications, training, interviews, and even guest speakers.
Pricing
You can start using it for free for 30-day and premium pricing starts from $12/month.
6. Castos
With Castos, you can be sure that no matter whatever plan you select, you’ll never run out of bandwidth or storage space because those features are uncapped and unrestricted.
Users who wish to record lengthier episodes, experiment with new styles, or start a second channel will find Castors highly tempting because they don’t have to be careful with their recording time.
Casto is one of the finest podcast hosting services for cross-platform publication because of its extensive capabilities, including the ability to automatically produce audio transcriptions and republish your material on YouTube.
Additionally, these skills are believed to improve SEO and make your content more visible, both of which are crucial for expanding your audience.
Pricing
You can try it for free and premium pricing starts from $19/month.
7. Transistor
Transistor was established just a few years ago, but it has swiftly evolved to become one of the most well-known podcast hosting services on the market.
With a plethora of strong and user-friendly features, this platform is intended for both huge businesses and producers who have just chosen to create a podcast.
One of Transistor’s distinguishing features is that it provides limitless storage for an infinite amount of podcasts to all users.
Other prominent capabilities include integrated programming, professional websites, distribution tools, and configurable domains. But Transistor’s powerful analytics dashboard that actually sets it apart from the competition.
You can monitor statistics such as average downloads each episode, the applications users use to listen, trends, and historical performance.
Pricing
You can start using it for free for 14-day and premium pricing starts from $19/month.
8. RedCircle
RedCircle is designed for new podcasters who want to generate original material for their audience, build their podcasts, and make money along the way.
With RedCircle, you can utilize your podcast to promote advertisements, accept donations, and collaborate on programs with podcasters from other platforms.
It is one of the finest podcast hosting services in our opinion since it gives consumers complete control over their content. You can also pick which platforms you want to publish your material on, and you can develop and distribute it anytime you choose.
RedCircle does not place a cap on the number of podcasts you can produce. The biggest feature of this platform is that it offers an unlimited free plan with advertisements to support the operation of your account.
Pricing
You can start using it for free for 7-day and premium pricing starts from $12/month.
9. Simplecast
Simplecast is an all-in-one solution for your podcasting requirements, including podcast authoring, distribution, analytics, and sharing.
It also includes identical tool availability for all sorts of businesses, whether you are a huge or small firm. Your podcast can be hosted anywhere, including Shopify, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, and other podcast directories.
Simplecast automatically submits your podcast to these directories and applications as soon as you post an episode and distributes it to your listeners. Then it will offer you extensive statistics to show you how many listeners you have, how many downloads you get, where your listeners are located, and other information.
This website is customizable, mobile-friendly, search engine optimized, and Google Podcast optimized, and it automatically refreshes when new episodes are published.
Pricing
You can start using it for free for 14-day and premium pricing starts from $15/month.
10. Libsyn
Libsyn has been a dependable podcast hosting service, catering to the demands of hundreds of users, including some of the world’s most famous personalities.
Libsyn’s major purpose is to provide an easy-to-use platform for bringing your brand to the forefront and advertising your podcast across several channels using highly effective features.
You can also effortlessly monetize your podcasts using this capability and publish them from any place. Libsyn also supports interfaces with numerous WordPress plugins and allows you to utilize its own plugin, Libsyn Publisher Hub.
If you want a dependable and simple-to-use solution with the most affordable price plan, Libsyn is an excellent choice! You also have the option of integrating affiliate marketing.
Pricing
The premium pricing starts from $5 for 3 hrs.
11. Riverside.fm
Riverside is one of the few remote recording solutions on the market that focuses solely on capturing high-quality local audio and video, despite the great potential of distant podcasting.
This is accomplished by establishing distinct audio and visual tracks for each visitor. With the aid of an incorporated automated transcription capability, recorded podcasts and videos can also be transformed into text in seconds.
You can split the audio and video tracks for each participant while continuing to record interviews. As a result, additional control over the recorded data is available throughout the post-production phase.
Overall, Riverside might be beneficial to podcast hosts that have several episodes and want to expand into a company.
Pricing
You can start using it for free and premium pricing starts from $19/month.
12. Captivate
Captivate is another excellent podcast hosting service that focuses on establishing and expanding your following. The hosting service lets you create and broadcast an infinite number of podcasts in order to cash and expand your brand.
Furthermore, Captivate is a simple hosting solution that allows newcomers to get started quickly.
Furthermore, it gives you quick access to a dashboard where you can manage your podcast, check your analytics, and prepare ahead of time.
Another advantage of using Captivate is that it does not limit the number of uploads. Whatever package you choose, you can enjoy genuinely limitless uploads as well as amazing podcast hosting features and tools.
Pricing
You can start using it for free for 7-day and premium pricing starts from $17/month (billed yearly).
13. Rss.com
One of the fastest-expanding podcast hosting services is RSS.com, which is renowned for its affordable prices and features that podcasters require to expand their programs.
For one cheap charge, RSS.com offers you everything you require to launch, develop, and monetize your podcast.
It’s simple to get your show in front of millions of new listeners thanks to RSS.com’s automated distribution of podcasts to the main podcast directories, such as Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Google Podcasts, in addition to opportunities for sponsorship and revenue.
With their social media integration feature, you can instantly post your podcasts on a variety of social media channels.
Pricing
You can try it for free and premium pricing starts from $4.99/month.
14. Spreaker
Spreaker is an all-in-one solution created specifically to meet the demands of podcasters. This podcast hosting platform makes it simple to produce, distribute, and monetize podcasts.
It also includes online and smartphone tools, allowing you to record and distribute podcasts from wherever and whenever you choose. You can record podcasts using the Spreaker studio from the app.
This platform’s user interface is quite smooth. When you publish your podcast on Spreaker, it is instantly distributed to all podcast listening sites.
It has fantastic features including podcast distribution, revenue, analytics, and a podcast app. Their website also includes links to their popular podcasts.
Pricing
You can start using it for free and premium pricing starts from $8/month.
15. Podcast.co
Podcast.co is a user-friendly platform that seeks to make things easier for podcasters. The podcasting hosting platform includes all of the necessary capabilities for uploading your podcast to the internet.
It also provides services for growth, launch, and manufacturing. So you can add any of the services to your subscription anytime you need them. You can also host private podcasting services with Podcast.co.
Only people with a membership package or members of your internal team will have access to your private podcasts. Apart from free podcasts, it is a useful add-on for producing cash.
Podcast.co also allows you to market your podcast with visually appealing elements in order to increase your subscriber base.
Pricing
You can start using it for free for 14-day and premium pricing starts from $19/month.
Conclusion
In conclusion, there are differing views on Anchor since some podcasters love it while others find it to be a terrible alternative.
I would absolutely use it if I were an aspiring hobby podcaster or someone who wants to try out the format without investing money.
However, while some podcast hosting services flourish in one area, others do so in a different area. If you’re still unsure which hosting company to choose for your podcasts, we advise picking the one that best suits your demands and budget.
You’ll be able to choose the ideal hosting company for yourself in no time if you understand your demands and budget.
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